Why I No Longer Attend Yom HaShoah Commemorations

Apr 9, 2026, 8:11 AM

Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse,
Report this post.

A West Hempstead Community Wide Yom HaShoah announcement (2011)

There was a time when I felt it was much more important attending Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) commemorations than Yom Kippur services. Not only did I attend them religiously, but many times I was involved in the planning of them.

The first time was when I was involved in student government at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work of Yeshiva University. I invited David Szonyi the Co-Editor of “Living After the Holocaust: Reflections by Children of Survivors in America”. It was the first book at the time written by children of Holocaust survivors about their experiences. The commemoration was simple; all the students and professors were sitting in a circle with David and talking. Just talking. There was a rawness and an honesty about that afternoon. It was one of the most moving afternoons of my lifetime.

That event took place just over thirty years since the end of the Holocaust. The Jewish community was still grappling with the horrors of the Shoah and its seismic aftershocks. We were unsure how to appropriately mourn the extermination of one-third of our people. Traditional Jewish methods of mourning and prayer did not fill the void we all felt within ourselves.

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, a major thinker at the time and today, stated that it would take years, if not decades, to figure out how to observe this period in an appropriate manner. After all, for the first time in Jewish history, the feeling was that Hashem turned His back on the Jewish people.

There was also a debate during the subsequent years after the Shoah as to which date should be designated on the Jewish Calendar for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Some wanted to combine it with Tisha B’Av, then considered the most tragic day of the Jewish year. That was not to be because Tisha B’Av ends with hope while Yom HaShoah ends with lingering doubts. Besides, combining the two holidays would dilute the unprecedented uniqueness of Yom HaShoah.

During that same time, the Conservative Movement added a section about the Shoah in its Passover Seder; A most inappropriate placement. Passover is about Hashem’s rescuing the Jewish People from bondage. No such rescue took place between the years of 1939-1945.

In the 1970s I attended a Yom HaShoah commemoration at the Young Israel of Forest Hills. The Rabbi expressed derision in that the premier Yom HaShoah event at the time took place at Temple Emanu-El – the prestigious Reform synagogue. I was aghast. Yom HaShoah should not be a day of divisiveness. Our enemies made no distinctions, why should we?

That next day at work, a colleague who saw me at the service apologized for her rabbi’s speech. She knew, at the time, I rarely attended shul and she could just imagine how I felt. I responded to her that I found it disturbing but was not angry. After all, Yom HaShoah services were in their early stages and still in a state of flux. In time, I believed, the Jewish community will attain a greater understanding and find the right tone and messaging.

During the 1980s and 1990s I lived in Teaneck, New Jersey. Teaneck held annual community-wide Yom HaShoah commemorations in the vast auditorium of Teaneck High School. Esteemed speakers such as Leon Bass, Yaffa Eliach, Emil Fackenheim, and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg were invited. Politicians in attendance were acknowledged, but never spoke, nor were they allowed to. There was a candle lighting ceremony, a survivor sharing their experiences, with the chanting of the El Moleh Rachamim, the traditional Jewish Memorial Prayer concluding the event,

What made the Teaneck event so appropriate was witnessing how it affected everyone in attendance. Before the commemoration, neighbors were hobnobbing in the aisles. Afterwards, there was a deep silence permeating the crowded room. The attendees departed as if they were just attending a funeral. Everyone was in mourning and it seemed as if each person was observing their personal Yahrzeit.

Fast forward forty years and today Yom HaShoah in America lost its essence, its élan vital. The service of today is stale and unimpactful. In some venues, attendance is sparse.

The commemorations have become unimaginative, and stagnant; The lighting of the six candles, each representing one million of the six million murdered and a survivor addressing the audience. Unlike the survivors of thirty or forty years ago, the survivors of today were mere children, or even babies, when The War broke out in 1939. Their messages are meaningful, but in very different ways. Their recollections are different than those past survivors born during the 1910’s and 1920’s who were of adult age during the outbreak of The War.

Plus, today, any politician who attends this event is often given the platform to speak, thus diluting the impact and desecrating this sacred event.

Yom HaShoah commemorations have lost their impact. In turn, at this rate, the new generation will never be able to internalize how the Shoah changed us as a people.

We must get it right in America. For the sake of humanity and future generations. Given the resurgence of antisemitism, we, the torchbearers, have fallen short in our messaging.

A West Hempstead Community Wide Yom HaShoah announcement (2011)

About the Author

Saul Chapnick was raised in an Orthodox home with deep familial Hasidic roots. Educated in yeshiva and later earning a Master of Social Work degree from Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Saul has continued throughout his life to embrace Jewish learning in many settings—from studying at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion to maintaining a weekly chavruta for ongoing Torah study. His lifelong journey has given him a deep appreciation for richness of Jewish tradition across the spectrum of Jewish life. For more than thirty-five years, Saul has devoted himself to the study of Jewish history, with a particular focus on Jewish life in interwar Eastern Europe. Inspired by the mitzvah of Zachor (to remember), he has explored both the extraordinary vibrancy of the Jewish world that was destroyed in the Shoah and the enduring questions of Jewish memory, continuity, and identity. Through extensive travel, archival research, and conversations with survivors, scholars, communal leaders, and public figures, he has sought to understand not only what was lost, but also what those vanished communities continue to teach us today. His writing explores the intersection of Jewish history, personal memory, Israel, and contemporary Jewish life, seeking to connect the voices of the past with the challenges of the present. A gifted storyteller and engaging speaker, Saul has lectured throughout the United States and abroad on Jewish history, Yiddish language and culture, modern Poland, Israel, and post-Holocaust Jewish identity. His presentations blend scholarship with personal experience, inviting audiences to explore the enduring relevance of Jewish history to contemporary Jewish life. He has also prepared adult participants of the March of the Living by providing historical and cultural context that deepens their understanding of both Poland's Jewish past and its emerging Jewish present. Saul is the author of a widely read weekly Substack newsletter and a contributor to The Times of Israel, where he reflects on Jewish life, history, Israel, memory, and current events. His essays weave together personal experience, historical research, and contemporary issues, encouraging readers to reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing the Jewish people today. For the past thirteen years, Saul has served as the Substitute Chaplain through the Greater Miami Jewish Federation Chaplaincy Program at Miami Jewish Health. During rabbinic transitions, he has served as the community's interim spiritual leader, leading Shabbat and holiday services, reading Torah, delivering Divrei Torah, teaching adult education classes and study groups, and providing pastoral care to residents and their families. Professionally, Saul brings more than two decades of executive leadership in healthcare and human services. He specialized in turning around distressed assisted living and memory care communities by rebuilding staff morale, restoring occupancy, improving quality of care, ensuring regulatory compliance, and returning organizations to financial stability. Today, he draws upon that experience as an expert witness in legal matters involving senior care, assisted living, and long-term care communities. Whether teaching Torah, leading prayer, writing, or speaking, Saul believes that Judaism is best experienced through learning, storytelling, meaningful relationships, and a deep respect for every individual's Jewish journey. At the same time, Chapnick has witnessed a limited reawakening of Jewish life in his family’s ancestral homeland of Poland. He has spoken at numerous venues on the contemporary relevance of Yiddish and Yiddish culture, the significance of the 19th- and 20th-century Jewish world to modern life, and the shaping of post-Holocaust Jewish identity. He also prepares adult participants of the March of the Living to engage meaningfully with modern-day Jewish Poland. Chapnick shares his insights and reflections in weekly blogs on https://saulchapnick.substack.com, where readers are welcome to subscribe.